


[Fandom stats] How often is Sherlock tagged as asexual in different ships?

by toastystats (destinationtoast)



Series: Fandom Stats [75]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Asexual Sherlock Holmes, Asexuality, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 20:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinationtoast/pseuds/toastystats
Summary: A look at use of the tags "Asexual Sherlock Holmes" and "Asexuality Spectrum" in different Sherlockian ships -- which ships use these the most? (As of 2016, but with a 2018 update)





	[Fandom stats] How often is Sherlock tagged as asexual in different ships?

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/139671390099/snogbox1-sussexbound-atikiology) in Feb 2016, at the end of a long meta thread. I added an update here as of Dec 2018. 
> 
> Some big caveats:
> 
>   1. the numbers of fanworks that use these tags are very small! adding a few new fanworks to one of these categories will often change the percentages & rankings. 
>   2. there are probably many works that include an ace Sherlock but don't use either of these tags. this only examines tagging practice. 
>   3. Sherlock/Molly percentages have shrunk since the original post mostly because the ship has surged in popularity. There are also a lot more Sherlock/Molly fanworks on FFN, and I have no idea how many of those feature asexuality. 
>   4. some of the original meta thread was debating whether het relationships were less likely to feature asexuality. I don't think there's enough data here to conclude anything more broadly about that, since the numbers are so small and this is just one fandom on just one platform. 
> 


[BOOM](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pgpITGSU0MAdAzmwgBCvm5Q7gKWutsZGCmSg2rEy0eU/edit#slide=id.g57c4e4376_0541), @strangelock, master of Sherlock ace stats, has already done some **[asexual!Sherlock shipping stats](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pgpITGSU0MAdAzmwgBCvm5Q7gKWutsZGCmSg2rEy0eU/edit#slide=id.g57c4e4376_0541)** about the number of fanworks on AO3. :D 

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipM7gjjj4nf13gxJl9Ir3eRy1Soy7-GSKW3QPE00?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

They’re from January 2015, and they don’t capture all asexual!Sherlock fic from that time because of tagging issues (as you note, tagging is not uniform).  But they still give a good idea.  And to give an update as of right now, I can find:

  * [11 Sherlock/Molly works](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=204497&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Asexual+Sherlock) tagged Asexual Sherlock ([17 tagged Asexual Character](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=204497&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Asexual+Character&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+%28TV%29))
  * [8 Sherlock/Irene works](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Irene+Adler%2FSherlock+Holmes&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Asexual+Sherlock) tagged Asexual Sherlock ([11 tagged Asexual Character](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Asexual+Character&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Irene+Adler*s*Sherlock+Holmes))
  * [12 Sherlock/Mary/John works](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Sherlock+Holmes%2FMary+Morstan%2FJohn+Watson&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Asexual+Sherlock) tagged Asexual Sherlock ([20 tagged Asexual Character](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Asexual+Character&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+Holmes*s*Mary+Morstan*s*John+Watson)) -- some of these may not involve Sherlock/Mary involvement, but some definitely do



If we compare these to the [325 Sherlock/John works](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Asexual+Sherlock&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+Holmes*s*John+Watson) tagged Asexual Sherlock ([366 tagged Asexual Character](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Asexual+Character&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+Holmes*s*John+Watson)), and divide by the overall numbers for each of these ships, we can look at the percentages of each relationship that gets tagged asexual (also throwing [Sherlock/Lestrade](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Asexual+Sherlock&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+Holmes*s*Lestrade) in here because of strangelock’s stats):

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipPdAWH8Eaj68Z5J6I8cTxsEui6P__MZPdjwEqJq?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

In sum: there are a smaller fraction of Sherlock/Molly fanworks tagged “Asexual Sherlock” than Sherlock/John, currently (which could be partly about tag use; I didn’t investigate that closely).  But not Sherlock/Irene, and certainly not Sherlock/Mary/John.  And apparently a much higher percentage of writers of Sherlock/Lestrade writers and Sherlock/Mary/John writers headcanon Sherlock as asexual than most authors.  

 **Edit as of Dec 2018** : I wanted to get updated stats and also visualize them in graph form. I used the two tags "Asexual Sherlock Holmes" and "Asexuality Spectrum" (the broadest AO3 meta tag for many different ace- and demisexuality-related tags, including "Asexual Sherlock Holmes"). Here's the latest (please see caveats in notes at the beginning): 

[ ](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipPvHmm5qyrKfy5_LGrarLO5Iil8eoXJcBosyywJ?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome, but I’m in the middle of a massive fandom stats backup due to Tumblr purge, so I may be slow to respond.


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